High school football: Perry's Luke Farrell picks up offers from Buckeyes, Wolverines

Many recruiting trails begin modestly and build to a crescendo.
Luke Farrell’s recruiting journey has gone straight to the crescendo.
After picking up his first Division I college football offer recently from the University of Illinois, Perry’s junior-to-be tight end received scholarship offers on back-to-back days from Michigan (June 16) and Ohio State (June 17).
“Yeah, it was a real good couple of days,” 6-foot-6, 240-pound Farrell said. “It’s been really exciting.”
Farrell’s star has been on the rise for more than a year now. If it’s not because of his physical strength (he benches 295 pounds and squats 500 pounds), then it’s because of his freakishly impressive athleticism (he ran a 4.7 40 at Ohio State on June 17 and has a dunking-ability vertical leap in basketball).
He’s also ranked first in his class academically.
In short, college coaches see him as the total package.
The list of offers could very well grow by one impressive offer this weekend when Farrell visits South Bend to visit Coach Brian Kelly’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
“I’d be surprised if they didn’t offer him, too,” Perry coach Matt Rosati said.
Farrell began his week with a one-day camp at Michigan. Tight ends coach Dan Ferigno, Farrell said, had he and two other tight ends working together during drills.
After a series of 1-on-1 drills — “I did pretty well in those,” Farrell said — Ferigno sent Farrell over to talk to head coach Brady Hoke.
“He offered me right there on the field,” Farrell said. “It was pretty awesome.”
On June 17, Farrell was in Columbus on a one-day camp with the Buckeyes. The trip started with a meet-and-greet in Meyer’s office, where Meyer chatted about playing baseball as a youth in Ashtabula with fellow St. John graduate Pat Giannell, a former coach at Perry.
“I was working with the tight ends coach, (Tim) Hinton,” Farrell said. “There were some guys throwing to us. Then we went to the indoor field and one of their committed players for the future was throwing to me,”
The quarterback, he said, was Massillon’s Danny Clark, who will be a sophomore this season with the Tigers.
“Then Coach Meyer brought me and my Dad (Matt) in to the office again, and he offered me there,” Farrell said.
Which as admittedly a thrill to the young tight end, who offered a succinct, “Ohio State, definitely,” when asked which team he follows the most.
Despite the early offers, Farrell said his work isn’t done. He considers himself a stronger receiver than a blocker, but vowed to work on his blocking so as to be a more complete